Welcome back to When Wine Calls – “2025 Wine Afficionados Tour”.
Following our unbelievable experience in Iceland we reluctantly said goodbye and boarded the Icelandair flight to London Gatwick. In all our previous visits to London we had never passed through London Gatwick, so it was interesting to compare it to London Heathrow where we usually land. After landing in Terminal 1 and collecting our bags we realised we had to catch a transit train around to Terminal 2 where the mainline station is located for a fast train through to busy Paddington Station, we would then have to change onto the Circle/District line to get to our apartment at Kensington.
While we negotiated these logistics, with our luggage it was overall more exhausting compared to arriving in London Heathrow where the trains into the city are easily accessible from all terminals. For us, we would prefer to land at London Heathrow when visiting London if possible.
On this trip London was a brief stopover to catch up with family and friends but we also wanted to call into Regent Street to visit the OG shop for new lightweight walking shoes for Pauline and then have lunch at Covent Garden, which was buzzing being a weekend.
We had selected an apartment hotel in Kensington so we could get our washing up to date – it was also located adjacent to the hotel that we had stayed in on our 2023 “The Summer Vintage” tour so we knew the area well. The hotel had changed names in the interim and been renovated but it was good to see it had retained the lovely garden area out the back (which also carried through to the apartment block we were staying in to allow us to catch up on the blog and E Mails) so we called in one afternoon and had dinner there to check it out. It had only opened a few months ago and it showed with inexperienced staff but the new fit-out itself is great and so handy to the station so we will continue to monitor the reviews for future stays there when in London.
Unfortunately, while the room in the apartment was a good size the main thing we needed, the washing machine did not work properly which resulted in us spending a whole day trying to get the washing and drying done with our clothes ending up being dried in the adjacent building’s laundry room – not the way you want to spend a day in a vibrant city like London.
We had arranged to catch up with Pauline’s cousin, Sachaa and the family for dinner that night. However, her husband Adam and one of their sons Jasper, had to unexpectedly travel up north for family reasons so could not make it but we still met Sachaa and their other son Max for dinner at a restaurant, Mestizo Restaurant and Margarita Bar in Chelsea that Sachaa had been wanting to try for a while. It was modern Mexican, and a lot of fun with us celebrating Max’s upcoming 16th birthday with a great Mexican celebration by the restaurant staff – we always have a great night when we catch up with them even though it was only the four of us on this occasion.
The next day we located a new rooftop bar that we wanted to try out and given the weather was good we headed over there for lunch. The view from the top was not quite as spectacular as expected but the overall experience was great with fantastic sashimi and aperols to enjoy.
On the way to the bar, after leaving the Underground station we saw a sign pointing to the “Artist Garden” on the roof of the station and went up for a look. While it was not a large exhibition it had some interesting abstract metal works which were extremely quirky.
Across the road from the entrance door to the bar we noted that the musical Mamma Mia had a matinee showing and, on a whim, we booked tickets and headed there after lunch for an entertaining afternoon. The London version is different in many ways to those we have seen in other cities, but nevertheless thoroughly enjoyable with all the patrons (including ourselves) standing up and singing ourselves hoarse at the end of the show which is always a highlight.
The other prime purpose of our visit to London was to catch up with Zoe, the daughter of our dear friends Tom and Lisa from Dubai who is currently studying in London. Sadly, Zoe was ill during the days we were there so we missed catching up which we were really disappointed about but next time we will make it happen.
In the extra time we had we took the opportunity to walk around the streets of Mayfair passing the famous Claridges Hotel and a couple of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants adjacent to each other nearby.
…. then through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens which if you are in London, is a delightful walk.
Our brief time in London had come to an end so the next morning we headed to Earls Court Station to catch the train to London Paddington where we would connect with a GWR train for the express trip to Bristol. We had booked first class tickets to ensure we could store our bags without issue in the carriage, but it also gave us access into the GWR lounge at the station enabling us to have our morning coffee in comfort. When we arrived at the designated carriage, we were surprisingly the only ones (other than one other person) taking our seats and so enjoyed personal service from the train staff all the way to Bristol.
On arrival, we then had to transfer to a double decker bus to take a 30-minute ride along very small streets to the airport to pick up the hire car – how the bus drivers negotiate these roads is beyond me. However, the airport is undergoing major renovations, so it was then onto another bus to get around to the hire car pick up point on the other side of the airport. Overall, it was a tiring exercise, but we eventually picked up the car and headed off on a 2-hour drive to our next stop in the small village of Exford in the Exmoor National Park.
On arrival at the quaint Exmoor White Horse Inn at Exford the first task after checking in was a drink sitting outside in the afternoon sun overlooking the village and the Somerset countryside – a tremendous setting to start our drive around Somerset, Cornwall and Devon.
While London is almost our second home these days when we travel and we always enjoy our time there we were looking forward to a few weeks in the wonderful English countryside travelling through an area we had not previously visited.
Join us next time – take care.
Bruce & Pauline
When Wine Calls 
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